EAST TIMOR'S Prime Minister, Jose Ramos-Horta, has lashed out at the
United Nations for its "inaction" in presidential elections
where all eight candidates are alleging intimidation and irregularities
and up to 150,000 registered voters apparently failed to cast ballots.

Mr Ramos-Horta called on the UN to expand its role in the country
before a run-off election next month between himself and Francisco
"Lu-Olo" Guterres, of the ruling Fretilin party.

Fretilin's powerful secretary-general, Mari Alkatiri, also called for
greater UN security to protect voters. "Fretilin has no fear of the
United Nations playing a greater role," he said.

Mr Ramos-Horta said in Dili that even though he won enough votes to
contest the run-off he could not remain silent about the conduct of the
election. "What is most disconcerting, upsetting, is that common
people - barefoot, illiterate, poor people - who put trust in the
democratic process have been let down," he said.

Mr Ramos-Horta said the UN mission in East Timor, which includes scores
of election experts and 1600 international police, ignored his repeated
requests to remove Timorese police who had been accused in the past of
intimidating voters.

A UN spokeswoman, Allison Cooper, said that as East Timorese
authorities were responsible for the election, any complaints should be
raised with them. Mr Ramos Horta also called on Australia and other
neighbouring countries to send election-monitoring teams to the country
for weeks before and after the run-off vote on May 8 and parliamentary
elections on June 30.

The Australia Government's seven-member observer group declared the
election a success from what it saw after only spending election day
monitoring polling centres east of Dili, the capital.

All eight candidates have complained about the conduct of the election,
the first run by East Timor since independence in 2002. The complaints
include that ballot boxes brought to Dili had been opened illegally.

Mr Alkatiri told reporters that Fretilin was disappointed with Mr
Guterres's failure to win a 51 per cent majority, which would have
prevented a run-off.

He said that Mr Guterres was looking forward to standing against Mr
Ramos-Horta "one on one". "Ramos-Horta says he is the one
who is going to win but you can see he is starting to shake," he
said.

---

East Timor schedules second-round vote for president May 8

Posted : Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:43:01GMT

Author : DPA

Dili - The top two vote-getters in this week's presidential election in
East Timor accepted the poll's validity Thursday and began preparing for a
run-off ballot set for May 8. The putative winner of Monday's first-ever
locally organized election with 28.77 per cent of the 357,766 votes cast
was Parliament Speaker Francisco "Lu'Olo" Guterres of the ruling
Fretilin Party.

Prime Minister Ramos Horta, who ran as an independent, secured 22.66
per cent. The constitution requires a run-off ballot when no candidate
wins a clear majority of the total votes.

"We are not making any wild complaints about the election,"
former prime minister and Fretilin chief Mari Alkatiri told a press
conference in the capital Dili.

Alkatiri, who made way for Ramos Horta when he lost control of the
country last year, admitted the ruling party had taken a battering at the
ballot box.

"The results are against our predictions," he said. Fretilin
won a landslide in the 2001 general election with 57 per cent of the vote.

Analysts said Alkatiri's party was punished for its failure to deal
with civil unrest in Dili last year that cost dozens of lives and resulted
in the flight of 100,000 people to makeshift refugee camps.

Horta accepted the integrity of the election results in comments after
the polls closed. "Despite some flaws, despite some intimidation, it
can be said to be free and fair," he said.

His tepid call for a recount was seen by analysts as a bid to curry
favour with the five failed candidates who demanded a recount and
threatened to not accept the official results.

Ramos Horta is a close political ally of President Xanana Gusmao who is
giving up the largely ceremonial role for a shot at becoming prime
minister in a general election scheduled for June.

Ramos Horta appeared to hold an early advantage for the run-off ballot
because he is more acceptable to supporters of the defeated candidates
than Guterres. He said Monday's election had weakened Fretilin and
bolstered the prestige of other parties.

"The important lesson now is that in 2001 Fretilin was not able to
monopolize," Ramos Horta said. "In 2007, voters have learned not
to deliver a clear majority for Fretilin."

East Timor was a Portuguese colony for 400 years until 1975, when it
was invaded by Indonesia and occupied for 24 years before a 1999
UN-sponsored referendum made it an independent nation.